Sister Kirsten Leslie: I Try To Be Grateful In Any Circumstance, But This Week It Was Easy!!

This week was full of miracles!! It seems that all the hard work we have been doing for the last couple transfers has started to pay off!

First things first: transfer calls. As you can tell by how I am emailing on Monday, I'm still here in Casper with Sister Woodbury!! We are so excited to stay together for this holiday season! We know there's a reason we are staying together and we are expecting miracles!! We are so pumped!!! It was very unexpected, because I was in Minot for 9 months, then here for 7 1/2 months, then my last area for 3. How weird! But hey, whatever works! The crazy part of transfers is the elders that we share the ward with both got transferred out and not replaced, so we are now the solo missionaries in the Casper 4th ward!! Our area just doubled, so we are going to be VERY busy, but we're excited! Now we have absolutely no excuse to not be finding people and teaching a whole bunch! So we're going to make it happen!!

We found 2 new investigators this week, which was AMAZING and so unexpected. The first one we found, Chantal, we found while trying to find a less active. We thought she was a Young Single Adult less active actually, but as we talked with her more, she asked us, "What church are you from?" We responded, "The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints". She responded with "I've never heard of that one before." We then asked, "Have you ever heard of Mormons before?" and she responded with something we don't hear very often, "No, I don't think so." So that was a nice surprise! She has an open mind with no weird misconceptions!!!! She has a little 3 year old girl, Tessa and Chantal really wants her to be able to go to Primary, so she is going to come to our ward but we are going to involve her in Young Single Adult activities (she's divorced, so technically she is young and single and an adult, but because of her child she's going to come to our family ward). We are really excited to work with her more! She really wants to build her relationship with her Heavenly Father, which is exactly what this gospel will do for her. :)

The other new investigator we found this week was Pete, and his story is nothing short of miraculous. Thursday, we were on pins and needles because we heard that transfer calls were going on, which was weird because they are usually on Saturdays, so while we were eating our lunch and our phone went off, naturally we freaked out a bit. But when we answered it, Pete identified himself and told us he had gone to the Stake Center and talked to some of the ladies in the Family History Center and they had given him our number to contact. (so at this point we thought he was a member because he used the term 'stake center') He said he wanted to look into our church and come to church a few times and meet with the missionaries. We were shocked! (so NO, NOT a member!!) But, excitedly, we set up a time to meet with him the next morning. The lesson was so powerful! He said he had never felt so good in his whole life as when we were teaching him. He's very receptive to the spirit and recognizes it, which a lot of investigators struggle with. We are SO excited to meet with him! We also met with him before church and had another powerful lesson with the same member that came with us the first time, and he loved church! Gospel Principles went REALLY deep yesterday, which was really frustrating, but he did pretty good with it. He's so solid and SO prepared, so we aren't too worried. I have never, in all my time as a missionary, had an investigator call me!! Talk about the tender mercies of the Lord!!! He's on date for January 3rd and we are confident he can make that. :) To picture what he looks like, just imagine an Italian Tony Stark, haha! So he is BOSS and I can't wait to meet with him again on Wednesday! Maybe he's the reason I got to stay in Casper!! :)

We also taught Tracy twice this week as well, so we had a lot more lessons then we've had since I got to Casper, probably. So it feels AWESOME to be seeing our work DO something!!! She continues to be well. :)

Sister Mower and I had an exchange this week, which was super fun! She is AWESOME! We had a nice, busy day as well!! As part of the day, we went to the salvation army to do some service, and we met this man who calls himself Little John. Now, Little John has a pretty cool story! He used to be on of the Hell's Angels (motorcycle gang, apparently), and he did some crazy stuff! When he was our age, he said he lived in Mexico for 5 years to get away from the Feds. Sketch!! He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most skull tattoos: over a thousand. Wow, right?? But now he is a leader in the Salvation Army church and loves God and has completely turned his lief around!!! Isn't that sweet?? There are cool people everywhere, even in Casper, WY! We also went and helped Deb, a less active, shovel her driveway and sidewalk, and that was awesome because she let us in to give us hot cocoa, so we were able to have a short lesson with her!!! Bawm!!! SO that was really cool. :) Sister MOwer is such a happy, bright person and she is a great teacher. SO it was a great exchange!!! Love her to pieces. :)

We talked to Jessica this week again!!! Well, we actually texted with her last night, and she was totally more open to us and she misses us! She moved, which was good to find out, but she still lives in our ward, which means we are destined to teach her! Haha or, that's how we're taking it. :) We invited her to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on the 7th (which, by the way, you should ALL be watching that!!) and our ward Christmas party, which is going to be a night in Jerusalem, so it'll be super spiritual and awesome!! And she said she will for sure get one of those days off work so she can come to one of them!! We were SO excited to be able to see her again soon!! We've missed her a lot. We sent her one of our Halloween cards last month, and she said she put it up on her nightstand!! What a cutie!! So we are super pumped about that!!

Also, Sister Woodbury and I wrote a SWEET, BOSS, Thanksgiving Rap for the season that is below! I hope you enjoy and it gets you into the spirit of the season!! :)

We met with Chris this week and got to talk to her about patriarchal blessings, and that really touched her. It was a really powerful lesson and she recognized that as something that she really wants and needs right now. SO yesterday she talked with Bishop and got the go ahead to receive her patriarchal blessing! We are so stoked for her!

We have 2 dinner appointments for Thanksgiving, so we will be well taken care of!! We are excited!! I'm honored to spend Sister Woodbury's one mission Thanksgiving with her. :) And, family, you'll get to meet her!!! How exciting is that!!! Haha so Sister Woodbury and I are going to start fasting now so we can fit all that food in on Thursday!! I can't wait!!! :)

Well that's it, I think!! This week was amazing and we're super pumped for how awesome this one will be!!

sister leslie.